AAP MLAs meet Sunita Kejriwal, assert that CM Kejriwal should not step down

Of the AAP's 62 MLAs in Delhi, 55 were present during the meeting. Four MLAs are out of station while three — Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain — are in jail, the AAP leaders said.

New Delhi: AAP MLAs, including Ministers, and councillors on Tuesday met Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita for the first time after the Delhi Chief Minister's arrest and urged her to convey their message that he should not resign.

The separate meetings with MLAs and councillors came on the second day of Kejriwal's judicial custody and rising demands from the BJP for Kejriwal's resignation, citing that he should resign as he is lodged in a jail. Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in a corruption case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy.

"We will run the government from jail with Arvind Kejriwal. Two crore people of Delhi are standing with Arvind Kejriwal, he should not resign from the post at any cost," the AAP leaders told Sunita. 

The meetings of AAP leaders with Sunita comes at a time her profile in the party has risen following Kejriwal's arrest in the Delhi excise policy case and amid speculation that she may succeed Kejriwal if he has to resign.

After Sunita's meeting with MLAs, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the MLAs told her that the BJP will exert pressure for his resignation but once he quits, they will run a campaign that he ran away. 

"It is the policy of the BJP to make a trap and force the Chief Minister to resign. Now that Sunita-ji is the only person who will be able to meet Kejriwal and talk to him, she will be our only medium to take the message of the party to him and bring back his message for the party. All the MLAs requested her to give their message that Kejriwal was, is, and will be the Chief Minister of Delhi," he said.

He said various leaders and MLAs were trying to meet Sunita ever since Kejriwal's arrest. "The situations were not right, only one or two people were able to meet her. Various demonstrations took place against the central government, MLAs were engaged in those. Then they were busy in the preparations for the rally on March 31. So today, all the MLAs came together to meet her. One by one, all the MLAs discussed their points with Sunita-ji," he said.

Sunita informed the AAP leaders that Kejriwal told her that he was very proud of them for organising a well-attended rally. "Not to worry about me, I am fine, strong and more resolute than before," Sunita quoted Kejriwal as saying.

Asked whether Sunita will replace Kejriwal, Bharadwaj said these are "baseless rumours" spread by the BJP. "The BJP has been waiting to come into power in Delhi for almost 25 years. It is still as far from the BJP as it was 25 years ago...BJP wants us to give them the chair. Their stomachs are hurting that we are not giving up, and we don’t have any solution for that," he added.